Colonna Palace and Art Gallery

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Visit the home of one of Rome's oldest families and see their extensive art collection

Colonna Palace

One of the oldest and largest private buildings in Rome, it is over 500 years old, and the site of the building has hosted the Colonna family for eight centuries. The Colonna family originally comes from a village of the same name, about 40km outside of Rome. From this nobile family came one Pope, a number of political leaders, and is known for its bitter feud with the Orsini family over influence and power in Rome.

The construction of the Colonna Palace started in the 13th century, and took place over the next 5 centuries comprising several wings that now make up the entire Colonna Palace complex. Legend has it that the earliest part of the palace was host to Dante on his visit to Rome. The current main facades of the building weren’t completed until the 17th and 18th centuries.

Colonna Art Gallery

Today’s main gallery was completed in the early 1700s, and the collection it houses was aquired sometime after 1650 by cardinal Girolamo Colonna and his nephew Lorenzo Onofrio Colonna.

The massive collection that they acquired includes works by Lorenzo Monaco, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Palma the Elder, Salviati, Bronzino, Tintoretto, Pietro da Cortona, Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Francesco Albani, Muziano and Guido Reni. The Palace’s ceiling frescoes are by Filippo Gherardi, Giovanni Coli, Sebastiano Ricci, and Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari, and celebrate the role of Marcantonio II Colonna in the battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Of course, there are many more stories behind the palace and the art than space we have to write about here. Book our tour today to get the whole story.

Sure thing, Enrique! The portrait of Portrait of Innocent X by Velasquez is definitely one of the painting masterpieces in the Doria Pamphilj collection, along with the three Caravaggio’s canvas (Repentant Mary Magdalene, Rest on the Flight to Egypt and Saint john the Baptist) and Raffaello’s highly celebrated Double Portrait.

To stress on the importance of this piece, a mid-19th century arrangement of the Gallery moved the artwork into a special chamber built for it at the far end of the wing running along the Via del Corso, with the purpose of isolating it from the rest of the exhibition.

The portrait, a masterpiece of 17th century portraiture, was painted between around 1650 and depicts a satirical, saturnine and hideous Pope Giovanni Battista Pamphilj, Pope from 1644 to 1655. Funny to know that apparently the Pope was not at first very enthusiastic about his portrait, describing it as troppo vero, "too real", not an idealized portrait as was customary at the time. However, we are told that it eventually won his approval, and he presented the Spanish painter with a very valuable gold chain. Velázquez himself must presumably have been very pleased with the portrait, or he would not have taken a replica back to Spain with him. His art colleagues certainly praised it, and many copies of the work were made. Check out on Francis Bacon's "Screaming Pope", painted in 1953 after the Velasquez masterpiece!

Oh, awesome! Didn't know the Francis Bacon's fact, I will check it out. Can't wait to see Velasquez in Rome in such an opulent baroque gallery. I am booking the tour right now, we'll be there in January. Thank you!

You'll love touring with us: you'll learn about past and present palazzo intrigues in this colossal 1,000-room family seat, which dates from 1505 and is among the most treasure-filled palaces in Europe. It is said to be nearly two-thirds the size of St. Peter’s Basilica! It may well be the largest private residence in Italy. The Doria Pamphilj clan, whose family tree includes the renowned Genoese admiral Andrea Doria and Giovanni Battista Pamphilj (Pope Innocent X), is one of just a handful of Rome’s ancient princely families who have survived with their palazzi, fortunes, and stunning art collections intact. So much to discover, uh!